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Stingy driverless cars will clog future streets instead of parking
It's a nightmarish vision of San Francisco's future, like something out of science fiction: streets full of driverless cars, crawling along implacably but at a snail's pace, snarling traffic and bringing the city to a standstill from the iconic Ferry Building to Union Square.
But according to Adam Millard-Ball, associate professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, this scenario could come to pass simply as a result of rational behavior on the part of autonomous vehicle owners. Congestion pricing that imposes a fee or tax for driving in the downtown core could help prevent this future, but cities need to act fast, before self-driving cars are common, he argues.
Those conclusions emerge from an analysis published in the journal Transport Policy, in which Millard-Ball used game theory and a computer model of San Francisco traffic patterns to explore the effects of autonomous vehicles on parking. He found that the gridlock happens because self-driving cars don't need to park near a rider's destination – in fact, they don't need to park at all.
The autonomous vehicle parking problem (DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2019.01.003) (DX)
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @11:31AM (2 children)
Governments are not dumb when it comes to collecting taxes. That's about the only thing they are good for.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 12 2019, @02:33PM
Governments are not only good for collecting taxes.
They are good for:
* Wasting money (SLS)
* Lining politician's pockets
* Creating new, better, more streamlined revolving doors between industry and government
* Regulating things that don't need to be regulated
* Failing to regulate things that absolutely need to be regulated
* Keeping themselves in power
If we sing a slaying song tonight, what tools will be used for the slaying?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday March 12 2019, @04:58PM
Which is the European answer to that kind of problem : Sure, your car can drive itself around, but have you seen the price of gas ?